The Culture
of Proximity study revealed four major themes –
1.
The Conjoint Effect: Brands are people, and
people are brands.
2.
New Centers of Gravity: Proximity puts people on
the same playing field as creators of mass culture.
3.
The New Intimacy: The difference between “in
real life” and virtual is blurry. True intimacy is possible without physical
proximity.
4.
The Filtered Me: The idea of authenticity is
being rewritten.
Velocity
Culture and Creative Insights’ senior director Mary Kate Callen
and director Maya Peterson explained how these Millennial attitudes can play
out for brands, companies, and the general culture at large.
Charlene Weisler: What are the major
takeaways that you discovered?
Mary Kate Callen: We fielded this study prior to the
election so we were shocked to see that a third of Millennials believe that
there is no such thing as the truth. We noticed that there is a new dynamic in
culture where you construct your own version of culture. There is a positive
side, obviously, where you can experience the world as you want to – your
favorite friends and celebrities, your niche fandom. But creating that cultural
bubble has its downside which is that there really isn’t a shared sense of what
is fact. We also found that 51% of Millennials say that sometimes they don’t
believe the things that mainstream culture considers to be fact. That feels
very relevant for the time we are in right now.
Charlene Weisler: How
do you see that playing out?
Maya Peterson: Our institutions are at risk right now and
hopefully they will become more transparent and we will see more authenticity
from them, which is something that Millennials really crave.
Mary Kate: We see people having a stronger sense of
relationships – there is a lack of trust in institutions but more of a trust in
other people, so that closeness of proximity we have to each other is translating
into a trust between one another - If you share an interest online, for
example, versus the traditional authority figure. There has really been a shift
in that.
Charlene Weisler: Do you see trends like
the conjoint effect leading to a culture of narcissism?
Maya: That
is an interesting question. The conjoint effect describes the phenomena of people
taking on the characteristics of brands and celebrities because of our close
proximity to each other and to the making of culture. So we see that, for
example, 50% of Millennials think that a movie should be made about their
lives. And 70% are actually choosing things to do in real life based on being
able to post about them. But we wouldn’t call that narcissism. We think it is
that people have a sense that they not only have more control of their personal
narratives but they also have more control of the cultural narrative. There is
a sense that your voice is important and that you can make a change. 61% of
Millennials say that they can influence popular culture. We see this in the
activism and political engagement of this group. It’s not narcissism. It is
impacting culture for the general good in a lot of ways.
Charlene Weisler: What impact do you see on
the future where brands are considered people? How will that influence
corporate behavior?
Mary Kate: We
have already seen this explode. Brands are using the slang of people, they are responding
to other brands as individuals. But right now I see this as more surface level
acting as a person. The question for the future is, ‘Will brands take this to
the next level of what being a person really is?’ For example, people have
complex, dimensionalized values and that is a difficult thing for brands to
nail. Another example is the idea of authenticity and the gap of what that
means as a person versus what that means as a brand. We think authenticity for
people often means being honest and transparent, being your whole self. Whereas
for brands right now it is often equated with consistency – are brands saying
the same thing in their social channels, TV ads, experiential executions – with
consistency being a stand-in for authenticity. Currently, a third of
Millennials believe that brands aren’t as honest as people try to be. There is
an opportunity for brands to improve that perception.
Charlene Weisler: How do you see personal relationships shaped
by these attitudes playing out in the next decade? How will it impact the
culture in family values and friendships?
Maya: What
we are seeing now is that people feel closer to people they have a shared
interest with online than those in their own community. We asked a question
about who you trust most – people your own age, news media, the government,
people online with a shared interest or people in your community. The number
one response with 68% was people online with a shared interest. People in your
own community was #3. So the definition of a personal relationship is changing.
You don’t need physical proximity to feel close anymore. In fact you may not
even have to know someone at all to have a real relationship online. But
looking future forward, we think that shared experiences still matter and that
ultimately people create community whether online or in person.
Charlene Weisler: Will some brands and market categories be more
affected by this Millennial attitude than others? If so which and how?
Mary Kate: All categories will be affected by this
eventually. Millennials are the largest consumer group and we are living in a
Millennial-ized world. They are the early signifiers of cultural change that
eventually get adopted. In future generations it will be even more acute. While
Millennials are defined as Digital Natives, the next generation may be defined
as Proximity Native - People who have grown up with this changing cultural
dynamic. We see this affecting multiple categories now and moving forward.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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